Spotted
by distantlover
Summary: My first fanfic in a long time, and in English. A bit of AAML fluff, nothing too serious. Misty has something she doesn't want Ash to see, but he does anyway, in part, due to his childishness. How will he react? Oneshot. Sorry if they are a bit out of character.


It was spring, the birds were singing and the sun was up in the sky. It must be some time near the afternoon, Ash could feel the smell of food. He woke up quickly, got dressed, put his hat on and went on a small quest, running through the stairs at full speed, impatient to talk to her. He was going to ask Pikachu, but then, he was asleep, and Ash wouldn't awake him since he could find her on his own. Turning on the lights of each place, he looked for her in her room, and no one was there. He thought about checking the living room just in case, but dismissed the idea quickly and instantly forgot.

Ash went down to the basement, the laundry room, and even up again as he looked in the attic, failing while trying to open the small tramp door, and coughing because of the dust once he got inside with a light to be able to see. She might have been looking at a few pictures on the albums, since they were at his house, after all. He even knocked on the bathroom door, but opened the door after a few minutes of silence and sighed. He barely showed at the doorstep of the kitchen, went a bit further in the garden, the sunlight hitting hard in his face, and went to the yard, with no avail. Then, he suddenly ran back. Pikachu was now following him, clueless.

He checked the living room and oh, there she was at last! How could he not have thought of this before?

She was sitting on a chair, her hair was down - he liked it better that way- and she was reading a magazine absent-mindedly, with her head slightly inclined, so that she could feel her chin against her breastbone. But what was the most weird thing of it all, she was wearing a purple jacket, all buttoned up... and sunglasses. It was hot enough not to wear that much clothing, nor there was enough sunlight coming through the windows to blind her, or so he thought. Since on most of her travels she wore her famous tank top, suspenders and shorts, he didn't see how this was any different. In fact, she was wearing shorts right now. He was perplexed.

However, he decided to be friendly about it, and as he got nearer to her, tried to make her look up. Misty, feeling observed, and because of the closeness, awkwardly went backwards a bit and expressed certain concern and annoyance"

Just wh-what do you think you are doing right now?". A visible blush had crept in her face.

"Hi, I just thought you didn't see me". He smiled in this same child like yet irritating way. Just like it always had been.

"Well, let me see, you and I are the only ones staying here as everyone went out, and yes, you just woke up so I didn't see you before, Captain Obvious", she said a bit tired and trying to regain her composure.

"Why the sunglasses?" he asked, innocently.

"Oh, this, well... my sight is a bit overwhelmed and...", she managed to answer as fast as she could.

"Yet, you're still reading" he said, putting a bit of thought into it.

"Yeah", she retorted.

"I don't think it's a good idea", he said. Suddenly, he had seen a small dot in her nose. Getting curious, with one finger he made the sunglasses fall a bit and quickly snatched them. Misty was at loss for words.

"H-hey! Let me put these back on!" she said, with the blush still going strong.

But what Ash had seen could not be unseen. Her face was covered with small orange or brown dots in small areas. His expression was playful at first, and now his mouth was slightly open. Pikachu was surprised too.

"Are you sick?". Misty lowered her face and hit her hand against her forehead in frustration. "Of course not", she muttered.

"What is it?", he inquired, louder. "Are you sure you aren't sick? Because I could take you to..."

She shook her head, sighed heavily and proceeded to remove her jacket as she explained it to him. "It's almost summer and the sun is bright. Redheads and other fair skinned people have their freckles intensified because of exposure to the sun".

"Oh, but I never saw them before", he said, half-confused and half as an apology.

"Because I covered them with make up"

"Did you?", Ash said in disbelief. Now he noticed that the little dots went all the way down until the visible parts of her chest and the superior corner of her shoulders.

Misty started to ignore whether she should laugh or not. "Why, yes. I did"

"Is it because you think they're ugly?", Ash had frowned a bit.

"Well, to keep them under control I-", she stuttered.

"That doesn't answer my question", he answered, determined to find out.

"Ugh, well, I think they kind of are...", said Misty, giving up "...there you go"

"Oh".

It was all he could say for a moment. A tense silence ensued and he looked at her. She was still having some trouble looking at him straight in the eye but tried nevertheless. "Don't laugh!", her expression seemed to tell him.

Now he had an idea, but he also seriously started weighing the question. Since when?

Well, maybe he had done some growing up, other than a few inches of height that made him slightly taller than her, and started seeing her more like a girl. He caught himself staring for a little while. It was like a sudden revelation for him. He bended so their faces could be at the same level. He patted her shoulder slightly as he whispered, looking at her firmly and with a gentle smile on his lips, "Well, if you ask me, they do make you look cute". And with this, he ran off to train a bit on the garden.

The sound of pokémon being released from their pokéballs, their trainer's excited voice, his congratulations and their yells as they did their best could be heard along with some laughter.

Misty stood there, frozen and blushing madly. She could feel her whole body burning, mostly her face. Did Ash just do that? Well, it was enough to amaze her coming from the most dense guy in the world. It certainly meant something. Nobody would know why she had a dumb smile for the rest of the day.


End file.
